“But you seem angry with Nevil, papa,” said she.
“I do hate a turbulent, restless fellow, my dear,” the colonel burst out.
“Papa, he has really been unfairly reported.”
Cecilia laid three privately-printed full reports of Commander Beauchamp’s speeches (very carefully corrected by him) before her father.
He suffered his eye to run down a page. “Is it possible you read this?—this trash!—dangerous folly, I call it.”
Cecilia’s reply, “In the interests of justice, I do,” was meant to express her pure impartiality. By a toleration of what is detested we expose ourselves to the keenness of an adverse mind.
“Does he write to you, too?” said the colonel.
She answered: “Oh, no; I am not a politician.”
“He seems to have expected you to read those tracts of his, though.”
“Yes, I think he would convert me if he could,” said Cecilia.